


Hikestuck

by satincolt



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Hiking, They're just friends, but there is some flirting, monster lusus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-10 00:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satincolt/pseuds/satincolt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sollux gets bored sitting inside and somehow ends up hiking with Vriska.  With their luck (and they have all of it) Sollux is hurt, Vriska's arm is broken, nobody can help them, and the sun's coming up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thii2 Wa2 A Bad Iidea

**Author's Note:**

> Based off an old RP I had with pageofbrea2t2. I was Vriska, Equius, and Karkat; she was Sollux and Tavros.

Sollux opened his eyes to a dark, blurry world.  His head ached and the ground spun and tilted wildly as he sat up, blinking tears from his eyes.  What the hell had happened?

“Jesus, you big wriggler, what are you crying about _now_?”

He jumped at the sarcastic voice on his left.  Twisting around, Sollux saw the outline of another troll perched on a rock only a few feet away.  The troll held out something to him.

“Vrithka?”  Sollux reached for the object in Vriska’s hand, pleased to find it was his glasses.  Putting them on returned clarity to the world.

“What?” she snapped, leaning forward towards him.

“Where the fuck did you even come from?” Sollux frowned, confused.  How in the world would he wake up as if he’d taken a nap in what looked like … a cave … and find Vriska Serket sitting next to him?

“I've been here the whole time.  You just passed out. I guess your delicate little lowblood constitution couldn't handle the hike,”  Vriska said imperiously, examining her chipped blue nail polish.  Sollux ignored the hemospectrum jibe.

“Tho you watched me and did nothing? _Thankth_.”

“I had to wait for you to wake up,” Vriska responded as if it was obvious.

“I’m overwhelmed with friendship right now,” Sollux deadpanned.  Vriska ignored him and continued.

“Nobody is on Trollian, so I couldn't get any other help.  Seriously, though, what--”

“Whatever,” Sollux picked himself up off the sandy cave floor and brushed the dust from his pants, turning away from Vriska.  “Look, it’th nothing, okay?”

“No, really--”

“Go back two doing whatever the fuck you do,” Sollux snapped, interrupting the other troll.

“You were crying,” Vriska insisted flatly.  Sollux spun on his heel to confront her, but found himself stunned.

“I … no …”

“ _Yes_.”  What had been a statement of fact now took on a teasing tone, and this was familiar ground.  Sollux found his words again.

“I wath not.”

“ _Yes_ , you _were_.  Now, what were you crying your little wiggler eyes about?  Did _Karkat_ not pity you back in your little dream?”  Vriska did that terrible thing where she sang her words in the most mocking manner possible.  Sollux ground his teeth.  The last thing he wanted to tell this bitchy troll was that he’d had a nightmare about Aradia.  She’d probably get a laugh out of it, and that was more than he wanted to deal with.  Whatever had knocked him out or made him faint had given him a pounding migraine in addition to amplifying the voices.  Great.

“Look, AG, I don’t feel like dithcuthing thith shit, ethpecially not with you, and _no,_ KK did not do anything, dream or real life.”  Sollux rubbed his temples.

“Well anyways, you're stuck with me.  We're, like, ten miles from the nearest hive and you can't go anywhere, not with the way your head is...”  So she knew about his migraine then, or had at least guessed at it.  

“Shit.  Well … thankth I gueth?  For not feeding me two your thpidermom or whatever …” Sollux said awkwardly, because it was true.  Vriska could’ve done anything from drawing bulges on his face to outright killing him while he was passed out.  It was almost weirder that she hadn’t done anything.

“She's not here you dumbass.  I can't feed you to her if she's not here,”  Vriska rolled her eye.  “And I guess I'd feel sorta ... guilty almost, if I did that.”

“Hell, for all I know I could have been dying and you could have brought me back two her like ‘wow what a convenient way two get rid of the athgrub, thith ith perfect.’”  Sollux threw his voice up into the falsetto range, making fun of Vriska’s sharp soprano.

“Oh, no way,” Vriska growled, “I am not dragging your skinny ass all the way back to my hive and getting your gross pissblood all over it, even if it is for my lusus.  You're not worth it.”  

“Awethome, that’th good two know,” Sollux shot back, only slightly reassured.  

“Captor…”

He almost missed her saying his name because it was so quiet.  “Yeah?”

“Captor, turn the fuck around … slowly …” Vriska whispered, her one eye wide and staring at a point somewhere beyond Sollux’s right shoulder.

“Okay...”  Sollux turned slowly, staring into the gloom deeper in the cave.  All he saw was the unevenly highlighted surface of the wall about 15 feet away.

“Just stay quiet.  Try to move back towards me …” Vriska’s voice shook like a leaf in a gale.

“You’re freaking me out AG, what’th wrong?”  Sollux peered at the wall, clueless as to what spooked Vriska so badly.  Trying to lighten the tension, he said, “It better not be Ampora hiding in the corner.”

This just agitated Vriska more.  “ _Don’t you see it?_ ” she hissed.  Sollux blinked once, twice, hard, then it came into focus.  He wasn’t looking at the cave wall.  He was looking at a living creature.

“ _Oh fuck_ ,” he breathed. “ _What the fuck ith that abomination?_ ”

“ _I don’t know,_ ” Vriska wailed softly.  “Just, quietly, move towards me!”

Sollux took one slow step backwards, towards Vriska’s barely audible, quaking voice.  The next step he took shuffled and sent a pebble skittering into the wall with a little _clink_.  

“Yes, just drag your skinny carcass here …” Vriska whispered, tense eye focused on the shifting wall of beast just in front of her.  It shivered as the pebble hit the wall, and she saw three sets of eyes flicker open along its flank, looking right at the two of them.  Sollux managed to make it almost all the way back to her without hitting any more rocks.  “Good,” she breathed right as Sollux was almost level with her.  Then all hell broke loose.

Sollux completely tripped and fell, kicking a rock at the beast.  The rock hit it in one of its eyes, making it roar and start towards them.  Vriska threw her hands up defensively and uselessly, screwing her eye shut as blinding red and blue lightning illuminated the monster’s terrible, craggy face and gaping maw.

“ _No no no no no no no no_!” she shouted, grabbing at Sollux to try to make him stop with the lights.  “No psionics!”

“I THOUGHT IT WOULD HELP!” Sollux shouted back.  Despite her pulling on him, he didn’t stop with the psionics, throwing bolts of energy randomly at the beast in his panic.

“You're pissing it off!” Vriska growled, wrenching at Sollux’s arm.

“Ow!  Fuck!  Okay!”  Sollux stopped the psionic lightshow as pain radiated out from his left shoulder and elbow in Vriska’s grip.

“RUN!” Vriska yelled, bolting from the cave.  The beast was momentarily stunned by the afterimages of the psionics, giving the trolls a head start.  They scrambled madly down the embankment outside the cave, weaving wildly through the trees.  Huge as the monster was, it could still fit between the trees and was hot on Sollux’s heels.

“ _Fathter!_ ” Sollux shouted up to Vriska.  She glanced backwards and poured on a new burst of speed.

“Hurry up!” Vriska panted, glancing again right as Sollux tripped.  “Captor!”  She skidded to a stop and backpedaled frantically, grabbing at him again.  “Shit, get _up!_ ”

“I am, fuck!” Sollux growled as Vriska grabbed his sore arm again, scratching him in her frenzy.  “Give me a hand here, don’t just scratch me!”

“Here.” Vriska managed to still herself enough to grab Sollux’s hands and pull him upright, still listening for the approaching beast.

“Thankth,” Sollux hissed.  The beast caught up to them, snaking its terrible head between two trees.  The trolls froze, staring up at it as it snapped branches as thick as they were like matchsticks in its jaws.

“OKAY, PSIONICS NOW!” Vriska shrieked as the beast snapped at them.  The world devolved into a mess of thrashing limbs, flying tree branches, and great white beast.  it was panic, chaos, and terror.

“HIT IT!”

“I CAN’T DO THITH MUCH LONGER, AG!”

The ground shook, the beast flailed, psionics flashed and burned.  Sollux somehow pinned it to the ground in a net of psionic energy, and it was fighting with everything it had.  

“Just hold it!  Hold it right there!”  Vriska armed her dicekind.  She threw the dice at the ground, willing them into a certain roll.  It worked.  ”Got it!”

Mindfang’s sword in hand, Vriska leapt forward and dealt the killing blow.  The trolls ducked out of the way of the spurt of green-yellow blood, Sollux maintaining the psionic net until the beast stopped thrashing, finally bled out.

 

 


	2. It's Not Getting Any 8etter

For a few minutes, the two trolls just stood there, catching their breath, staring at the slowly cooling carcass of the beast. The filmy green light filtering through the trees combined with the shifting dapples of moonlight made it look as if the beast was still breathing, eyes ready to flicker over them and leap up once more. Sollux closed his eyes, doubled over to catch his breath as Vriska crept closer to the mountain of dead monster, gathering up her dice with trembling hands.

“What the fuck even is it?” Vriska asked, her robotic hand just inches away from touching the beast’s wrinkled white skin.

“It lookth like a thtray luthuth or thomething,” Sollux said eventually, eyes opening a hair. “Like FF’th luthuth filled a pail with … I don't even know.”

Vriska chewed on that for a moment. “Okay, lusus maybe. Yeah. It looks ... mutated, though. You're the mutant. Tell me about it,” she demanded, turning to face Sollux.

“You know I don't know anything about the thtupid cathte thythtem or mutations. I jutht know I have pthionicth and hear the voiceth of trollth about two die,” Sollux protested, annoyed by the racist slurs. Vriska seemed to ignore him.

“It's got about four heads too many … or, wait … Are those arms?”

“Fuck, I don't know. Did you try your mind control shit on it?” Sollux asked, frowning and straightening up.

”That's Tavros, idiot. He does lusii, I do trolls,”Vriska glared at Sollux, voice scathing. The last thing she wanted was him criticizing her for being terrified out of rational thought. Besides, she’d have to daisy-chain her powers with Tavros’s in order to control the lusus, which would’ve been way too difficult and probably dangerous.

“Well, great, we should have gotten him over here-- oh wait, he can’t come here becauthe you crippled him, that’th right,” Sollux spat, turning away from Vriska and the dead lusus.

“Oh shut up, whining whiney wiggler. This wasn't my idea to begin with!” Vriska complained, calling after Sollux, “who was the one who messaged me yesterday, so desperate to get out of his hivestem? Oh yeah! You!”

“Fine, whatever, that’th not what we should be worrying about anywayth,” Sollux waved her off, starting to feel faint. He added under his breath, “yeah and I totally knew we would get chathed by a giant mutant luthuth...”

“I guess you're right,” Vriska said in a bitter voice that screamed those words tasted as good as vinegar. Sollux stumbled over to a tall tree root and flopped down, head lolling backwards. The other troll frowned, then located the problem. “I mean, you're bleeding …” Vriska gestured vaguely to a patch of honey-colored blood that was starting to seep outwards from a pretty minor-looking scratch on Sollux’s left thigh. Then she realized that sounded too concerned and covered quickly with, “it's really gross.”

“What an inconthiderate knucklethponged athhole I wath to invite you,” Sollux mumbled, more than vaguely annoyed with Vriska’s knack for pointing out the obvious in the most irritating way possible. “Thankth. I’ll try two thtop that. Thorry it’th tho groth.”

“I'm trying to help!” Vriska growled, shrugging off her backpack.

“Yeah, I know, I know. Shit...” Sollux pulled at the ragged edges of his pants around the cut, revealing its full extent. The wound was much bigger and much more serious than it first looked. “Thorry.”

Vriska rolled her eyes at the yellowblood’s unnecessary apology and pulled off her overshirt. “Just ... here. Take this.” She held out her worn, slightly tattered grey shirt, softened by sweeps of use and abuse. Sollux’s mismatched gaze flickered over Vriska and her offering, considering her slowly. Then he leaned forward and grabbed the shirt.

“Thankth. We're thtill friendth right?” He tied the shirt as tightly as he could manage around the cut.

“I guess,” Vriska shrugged, aborting a movement to fix the knot on the makeshift bandage. She knew that knot wouldn’t hold, but a sheepshead or even a square knot would. Rubbing her arms and crossing them, she finished her thought with, “if we were even friends to begin with.”

“True,” Sollux mumbled, fiddling with a fray in the shirt-bandage. An awkward silence descended. He suddenly became devoutly fascinated with the way his hands worked as Vriska took up braiding tiny sections of her hair with laserlike intensity. Then Vriska jumped forward, yelping,

“Oh!” She fished her buzzing comm device from her back pocket, face illuminated blue as she unlocked the screen. “Now Trollian works!”

“Of courthe it doeth,” Sollux sighed as he dug around in his pockets for his own comm.

“Your device is better than mine, check and see who’s online,” Vriska instructed, putting her comm away.

“Uh...AC,” Sollux flicked through his online contacts, “TZ … GZ …”

“Wow,” Vriska snorted.

“We get the fuckpodth,” Sollux summarized. The blueblood pursed her lips and nodded.

“Okay, yeah, they're all pretty useless.” Then she looked around. “We're in the middle of a forest. Who lives around here anyways?”

“I think Terezi doeth,” Sollux offered, putting his comm away, “doethn't she?”

“Oh yeah!” Vriska slapped her forehead, “I should know where my old Scourge Sister lives! I think her hive is over here somewhere. Just keep up and try not to bleed out on the way.”

“I’ll try my hardetht,” groaned Sollux, staggering to his feet. “Ok, let’th find her hive. you know the way better than I do; I don’t even know where the fuck we are.”

“We're about ten minutes away,” she answered, gesturing to a general direction with a metallic whine from her robotic arm. “So,” she looked over her shoulder at Sollux, “have you stopped bleeding yet?”

“Almotht? It’th definitely thlowing down.” Sollux tugged idly at the knot. Vriska swooped down on him, pulling the knot out and repositioning the bandage. He frowned as he felt Vriska’s breath on his skin.

“That thing really scratched you, didn't it?”

“Yeah,” Sollux grumbled, hissing as Vriska poked at the cut.

“Did it get you anywhere else?”

“Jutht the leg I think.”

“Alright,” Vriska retied the knot tighter, released Sollux’s leg, and stood, tilting her chin up to meet Sollux’s eyes. “Do you think it was venomous?” She tried to hide the worry in her voice and didn’t quite manage.

“Hell if I know. It’th a pretty big cut but I think it’th ok.” Sollux frowned again as he glared over Vriska at the dead monster lusus. “I don’t even know what it actually ith.”

“Neither do I,” Vriska flicked her hair. The conversation lulled and Vriska took a few steps away, acting like she had a purpose. Sollux was still looking at the lusus, cataloging its terrifying features, noting it looked really sort of like Nepeta’s lusus had pailed with Feferi’s.

“Terezi's not a healer,” Vriska said suddenly, turning to face Sollux again, “or a doctor. She's an executioner.”

Sollux rolled his eyes. “No, really, I had no idea. Do any of our friendth know healing thtuff?”

The blueblood thought for a moment, tapping her metallic fingers together with quiet tings. “Kanaya. She lives out on the edge of the desert though. She's like, eight miles away from my hive.”

“Well, shit,” the psionic huffed.

“Which is about two hours from here,” Vriska finished, ignoring Sollux’s interruption.

“Maybe we can get her on Trollian and she can tell uth what two do. But firtht, let’th jutht get the fuck out of thith foretht.”

“For once, rational thoughts from Captor.” Vriska started off in one direction, skirting around the dead lusus. Sollux hobbled after her, trying to keep pace. The cut spiked with pain every time he took a step and he knew it was deeper than he’d said. All he had to do was follow Vriska’s path and he’d get to Terezi’s hive eventually.

The blueblood had said the hive was ten minutes away, but that was assuming both hikers were physically capable. Forced to slow her march to a crawl, Vriska kept shooting annoyed glances at Sollux, trying to tell him to hurry up. He was, of course, oblivious to any form of subtlety. She toyed with the idea of just forcing him to walk faster with her powers, finally reaching into Sollux’s head. Sollux was stunned by Vriska’s trespass into his mind and she forced him to move along smartly, but his sense of pain overrode her control. Infuriated, he lashed out and sent a wave of psionics along the mental connection.

Vriska stumbled, head ringing and vision blurring with red and blue. She threw her arms out to catch her as she fell, but her head cracked against an errant tree root.

“Fuck,” she groaned. Her skull felt like it had split in two. By the time her vision cleared of dancing sparks, Sollux was shuffling past her. He reached out and flicked her hard on the horn, red-and-blue arcs of power snapping down his fingers. Vriska’s shriek of indignant pain echoed through the trees as the psionics drove like a knife into her pounding brain.

“Don’t meth with my head, AG,” Sollux growled. Vriska scrambled to her feet and shoved Sollux petulantly, storming past him. After a few more minutes in which Vriska projected her sense of brain-pain onto the edges of Sollux’s awareness, only serving to make him more irritable and miserable, she came to a stop.

“Here we are,” she grumbled. “Terezi's godforsaken hive.”

“Tell her two let uth in,” Sollux said.

“I'm trying,” Vriska insisted. “She-- it says she’s on Trollian, but dammit, she's not coming to the door.”

“What could she be doing that’th more important? We jutht got chathed by a monthter luthuth and I’m leaking grubthauthe here,” Sollux snapped. His head was killing him thanks to whatever made him pass out earlier and the voices screaming at him. His leg was also killing him and he was starting to feel woozy from blood loss. Everything compounded made him feel just absolutely 5000% done at that point.

Just then, there was a hiss and a metallic whine followed by, “and wouldn't you know it, my arm just broke.”

Sollux snarled in frustration. “We,” he pounded his fist against Terezi’s door, “are,” he pounded the door again, “thcrewed.” He kicked the door.

“Well said, Captor,” Vriska deadpanned. “As always, your witty repertoire is stunning.”

“I am a shining thtar in a thky of cloudth, I know,” Sollux grumbled, knowing it made no sense and that was a bad thing. The blood loss was starting to get to him. Vriska seemed to notice this and strove only to make it better.

“So you're bleeding from a massive mutated lusus wound and I only have one arm,” she summarized, only pointing out the hopelessness of the situation.

“Yeah,” Sollux muttered, slumping against the resolutely closed and locked door. “Thith ith a problem.”

Vriska shot him a look that, if he had actually seen it, would have said, “you don’t say?” Grinding her teeth at Sollux’s complete gauche, the blueblood shoved him out of the way to wale on the door. “TEREZI, I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!”

Pulling himself upright using a sapling, Sollux hollered, “TEREZI FUCKING PYROPE OPEN YOUR HIVE!” There was absolutely no response. He slumped again. “Jeguth.”

There was a quiet moment; Vriska was thinking. “What if she's not actually in?” she suggested. “She's visiting her lusus or some shit like that?”

Sollux’s head jerked up suddenly and he met Vriska’s eye. “What if that thing got two her?”

Vriska paled dramatically. “Dammit; oh fuck!” She wrung her hands and spun quickly on her heel. “No, you didn't just see that! Ignore that, Captor!”

“My lipth are zuipperpipped,” Sollux held up his left hand, troll’s honor. Vriska gave him a look.

“Zuipperpipped?” Sollux shrugged. “Whatever. Okay. Thinking...”

Vriska fidgeted with her broken arm, twisting at frayed wires. Sollux idly wondered if those wires were purely for aesthetics, because her arm wouldn’t work so well if it had dozens of snapped and frayed essential wires spilling out of every gap. He slumped over backwards, draped over a tree root, trying to shut out the shrieking voices in his head.

After a few minutes of Vriska pacing and Sollux spacing, he sat up a little and blinked blearily. “Who liveth clothetht two her?”

“Me,” Vriska said quickly, looking up from a serial number stamped on the palm of her robotic hand. The yellowblood sighed in defeat and relaxed.

“You know what,” Sollux slurred, melting completely over the tree root, “I bet she’th fine. I would have heard her if she wath about two die. Probably.”

“Did you hear us?” Vriska asked. “When that lusus attacked us?”

“Well, yeah, but that’th becauthe we were shouting. I didn't hear uth in my head, and I wath pretty dithtracted, to be honetht.”

Vriska hummed in assent. She paced around in front of the door for a while, idly rubbing at spots of dirt and rust on her robotic limb, twirling locks of hair around her fingers. Sollux might have fallen asleep for a few minutes, driven to exhaustion and the very brink of consciousness by injury, blood loss, and migraine compounded.

“I guess from here we can head back to my hive,” Vriska suggested.

“Might ath well,” Sollux mumbled.

“I mean, I don't really know where anybody else lives,” Vriska continued. Sollux rolled his eyes.

“I’lll thend a methage two AC and GZ and thee if they've heard from her.” He managed to pull his comm out of his pocket and tap out a message. The psionic’s movements were dangerously sluggish. Vriska eyed the improvised bandage; it was sopping with yellowish blood. At this point she skittishly considered the possibility the lusus scratch had hit an artery or a major vein.

“Alright. I'll see if anybody else is online.” Vriska jumped and did a little shout of joy. “Great!”

“Who'th on?” Sollux slurred.

“Kanaya,” Vriska glanced up at the canopy of the forest, gauging the color and direction of the light coming through. The mellow green and pink of the moons were still shining through the levels of leaves, but at a dangerous slant that indicated moonset and impending sunrise. “But,” she said by means of caveat, “We only have, like an hour and a half until sunrise.”

It took a second, but the information finally clicked in Sollux’s head. “Ok, hive then methaging, got it.”

“And I suggest running,” Vriska said ominously, retying her shoes. She cursed quietly in frustration with her single fumbling hand. Damn that explosion for taking her dominant arm, damn that arm for breaking at a time like this.

“Let’th hurry our broken atheth up.” The blueblood looked up to see that Sollux had staggered upright and was standing over her, swaying slightly but offering his hand to help her up. She took his hand and stood up.

“Let's go!” She pulled him along by the hand, trying to make him stumble faster. “Don't make me carry you!”

“It’th jutht a limp, I’m fine. Keep going,” Sollux panted. Vriska tightened her grip on his hand and tugged at him. She knew if she let go he would stop and be left out in the sun; she couldn’t let that happen.

“Don't fall behind! You know what nasty shitbeasts come out during the day!” Vriska hollered by means of an excuse.

“Yeah, AG, I know!” Sollux yelped at a particularly vicious tug on his arm to hurry. “I’m going ath fatht ath I can!”

“It's not fast enough!” Vriska shouted as they cleared the edge of the forest, staring down the ten-mile savannah that stood between them and Vriska’s hive, at the edge of the dry river canyon.

“Well thorry, fuck!” Sollux growled as Vriska grabbed at him unexpectedly. What the hell was she trying to do?

“Here, hold still a second,” Vriska snapped, her patience wearing thin. She maneuvered around Sollux and suddenly drove her right shoulder into his gut. He folded over her shoulder with a gasp of pain and breathlessness, and she was hefting him up before he knew it. She wrapped her good arm around his thighs.

Sollux growled and elbowed Vriska in the back of the head, albeit not quite hard enough to bruise.

“Alright,” Vriska ignored the elbow, “Here we go again. Don't wiggle around, or I'll drop you.”

“On one condition: we never thpeak of thith again,” Sollux snarled, the pain in his leg flaring as Vriska squeezed him tighter and set off at a jog.

“I don't like this any more than you do, Honey Boy,” she panted.

“Oh pleathe, you're probably tho black for me,” Sollux taunted. He figured the sudden burst of energy from adrenaline was best spent taunting Vriska, if that’s all he could do.

“Shut up!” Vriska moaned, jostling Sollux harder than necessary. “if I was black for you, you'd be in so much more pain right now.”

Sollux weakly tried to fit another retort in, but didn’t quite manage before he just gave up. He tried propping his elbows against Vriska’s back, but that didn’t work and she signaled her disapproval of his stiletto elbows digging into her ribs with more jostling. After that, he just went limp with exhaustion and pain and humiliation.

All things considered, though, this wasn’t too bad of a situation. They could’ve died at the lusus’s jaws, Vriska could’ve abandoned him and left him to bleed out or burn to a crisp (whichever happened first), or he could’ve been stuck with someone like AC or even KK, who wouldn’t be able to carry him. They’d be willing, but only a highblood would have the strength to heft a freakishly tall troll like Sollux.

Vriska ran on in silence for several minutes, Sollux letting his thoughts meander. Then, he managed to lift his head and glance out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey, ith that thing your hive?” He mumbled in Vriska’s ear.

“Yeah,” the blueblood breathed, sounding near the edge of her stamina. “Hold on tighter; you're slipping!”

“Holding on,” Sollux mumbled, dutifully digging his elbows into her back.

“Okay… you… You walk from here,” Vriska panted, throwing Sollux down like a sack of edible tubers after a few more minutes. Sollux coughed and doubled over in agony.

“Jethuth! Why’d you have two do that?” he groaned. Vriska just shook her head, doubling over and coughing herself to try to catch her breath.

“It's like, eighty feet,” she said finally, swallowing hard to try to re-wet her parched throat. “Can you do that?”

“Got it,” Sollux coughed again, pushing himself into a semi-upright position. He spat some yellow blood onto the dusty ground. It blended in with the desiccated grass and silica sand. The psionic grimaced at the disappearing spot of blood, rapidly soaked up by the barren landscape. “Yeah.”

He stood and looked at Vriska, who had mostly recovered her breath. She held out her arm as an offer for balance

“I… Yeah, yeah.” Sollux stared at Vriska’s arm and finally grabbed her elbow.

“What now?” Vriska groaned, letting her head fall back exasperatedly.

“Nothing,” Sollux sighed, tugging at Vriska’s elbow to move her towards the hive. She remained stubbornly still.

“No, seriously. What now?” Vriska repeated her question, intent on getting an answer, tired as she was.

“You know,” Sollux flapped his hands pathetically, searching for an excuse, “jutht blood loth making me an idiot. I can make it eighty feet, though.” God damn, was his voice really that weak? He needed to fix this, soon. Sollux’s own reedy voice was starting to chant doom inside his head; it was the very last thing he ever wanted to hear.

“I did not just drag your skinny ass away from that lususbeast and then haul you another ten miles for you to say ‘nothing.’”

“Jutht tired, tho enough talking and let’th keep going,” Sollux pleaded, desperation seeping into his wavering voice. Vriska picked up on it and rolled her eyes.

“Got it.”


	3. The Cavalry Ha2 Arriived

They limped the eighty feet in silence, desperate adrenaline pushing them past pain and exhaustion.  Red light was starting to dust over their skin, and Vriska could feel herself crisping.  Damn sensitive highblood skin.  They reached the front door and Vriska unlocked it by manually manipulating her non-functional arm; the lock was keyed into grooves on the robotic fingers.

“Here we are,” she said gruffly.  “Get your ass inside, the sun's almost up.”

“Done,” Sollux huffed, too tired to feel the cold that pervaded the highblood’s dark tiled hive.  

“Just sit on the floor over there,” Vriska gestured to a couch halfway across the foyer, “and ... I'll find a towel or something for that cut.”

“That would be thmart,” he breathed, head lolling against the couch.  The cut on his leg was starting to burn and he was losing sensation in his extremities.  Even his psionics felt weak.  His voice in his head was louder than his speaking voice.  But he couldn’t care enough to stop the voice, to stop the bleeding.  He’d lost too much and just wanted to sleep now.

“Message Kanaya while you're bleeding out over there,” Vriska said softly, worry creasing her brow.  “Ask her what to do.  See where Terezi is too, if you can.”

“Already on it,” Sollux tapped lethargically at his comm.

Vriska cleared her throat.  “And… don't do anything stupid until I get back.”   _Like die…_

“Becauthe I can't go a…  minute without mething thingth up,” Sollux whispered to an empty room.  “It'll be hard but I’ll try.”

 

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

TA:  ga plea2e be onliine

TA:  dammiit ga

TA: kanaya 2eriou2ly

GA:  What Is The Matter, Sollux?

GA:  You Seem Rather Distressed

TA: yeah no kiiddiing how'd you make that briilliiant deductiion? look, ag and ii got cha2ed by 2ome huge lu2u2bea2t and iim bleeding a lot and 2he2 got one arm 2o what the fuck do we do?

GA:  Well

GA:  It Seems You Should Stem The Bleeding First Of All

TA: 2he2 gettiing a towel 

GA:  And Which One Of Vriska's Arms Is Broken?

TA: the left one?

TA: fuck ii don't even know iim on the briink on con2iiou2ne22 here

TA: the roboarm

GA:  So Her Robotic Arm Is Not Functional?

GA:  Hmm It Would Seem Equius Is Best Equipped To Deal With That Issue

TA: yeah

GA:  You Should Also Attempt To Clean And Stitch The Wound That Is Bleeding

 

Vriska stomped into the foyer carrying a few dark, ratty towels.  “I'm back,” she said, appraising Sollux.  He was still alive and conscious.  Good.

“Oh, hey,” Sollux grumbled, eyes lazily flickering over her.  Vriska approached and dropped a towel on Sollux’s lap.

“Here's a towel, what did Kanaya say?” Vriska asked, untying Sollux’s bandage.  He didn’t make any move to stop her.  “Well?” she prompted.  Sollux didn’t respond.  “What did she say?” she prompted again, this time more concerned, more impatient.

“She thayth ... we should contact … Equiuth,” Sollux said slowly, fingers twitching as if he wanted to take care of his own cut.  Vriska brushed his hands away and continued working on the knot with her one hand.  “Since he … built the arm and all.”

Sollux’s comm buzzed and lit up.  “Look who jutht ... got on line.”  He tapped at the screen lethargically.  Vriska pulled out her beaten-up comm and opened Trollian.  Equius’s tag was flashing.  It seemed Kanaya had warned him.

“You ... contact Equiuth ... and I get thith … cleaned out and … thtitched up,” Sollux ordered weakly.

Vriska gave a dubious glance to his slow, shaky movements.  It was like he was … dying.  The blueblood bit her tongue suddenly as the realization hit her.  She’d killed before and fed people to her spidermom, sure, but this… this was a slow and agonizing death right in front of her.  She was _not_ okay with it, but she still said, “okay.”

“Shit!” she hissed.  She’d just remembered something.

“What?” the psionic slurred, looking up from his sluggishly bleeding cut.

“My neighbor is on house call to Tavros today!  Something about maintenance… _Shiiiiiiiit_.”  Vriska dropped her comm to the floor and took over Sollux’s cut care again.  She ignored the weak defiant hiss.

“Jeguth Tavroth ... of all dayth two malfunction,” Sollux hissed again, wincing as Vriska accidentally poked the wound.  She held up her hand placatingly and continued.

“I know,” Vriska agreed with a growl.  “That bumbling idiot ruins everything!”  She finished untying the soaked and really quite disgusting shirt-bandage and replaced it with the fresh towel. “Actually, message Equius or Toreadork, I'll see if I can get you something to clean your scratch out.”  She stood and moved to the doorway deeper into the hive.  “Will rubbing alcohol work?”

Sollux attempted a shrug.  “I don't know.   Sure ... why the fuck not?”

 

Vriska disappeared once more deep into the hive.  She saw Sollux messaging as she left into the dark corridors.  She sprinted down the hall to the massive spiral staircase, her roboarm an annoying dead weight bruising her side as she ran.  On the stairs, she couldn’t move fast enough; she overran her feet and slipped.  The resulting crash echoed through the whole staircase as she tumbled down a dozen stairs.

She staggered to her feet and braced against the wall for a moment.  Her horns were killing her, amplifying her earlier headache.  She was most _definitely_ bruised in many places now and her knee was skinned.  Oh well.  Racing down the rest of the stairs into the ground-floor main hall, Vriska caught a glance of Spidermom’s great white form through an archway.  She’d be hungry, another FLARP session was in order soon.

The ablution chamber at the end of the hall, the chamber Vriska rarely used, yielded her prize, just as she’d thought.  Instead of wasting the rest of her close-to-gone energy climbing back up the stairs, the blueblood found a transportalizer pad in an empty room nearby which took her to the end of the hall leading to her foyer.

She was thoroughly out of breath by the time she reached Sollux again, brandishing the bottle of rubbing alcohol.  “Here,” Vriska panted.  “It might ... sting.”

Sollux nodded, and Vriska grabbed the bottle between her knees after she threw herself down on the floor next to her fr-- next to _Sollux_.  Jesus.

 

twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling centaursTesticle [CT]

TA: hey equiiu2, we have 2ort of an emergency. vrii2ka broke her roboarFJRIWJVN

 

“SHIT!”  Sollux barked, recoiling from the cold alcohol.  Vriska glared at him.  She continued to pour the alcohol as Trollian pinged again.

 

CT:  D--> What?

TA: iignore the key 2ma2hiing. ju2t in paiin here

TA: 2o ag broke her roboarm and ii need you two fiix iit

CT: D--> Why are you in pain? Is vriska hurting you?

CT: D--> I just need a moment to finish up with Mr. Nitram and then I can attend to Vriska

CT: D--> I sh001d be over in appro%imately five minutes

TA: roboarms can't bleed or anythiing 2o ii gue22 that2 pretty good

Vriska finished with the alcohol and went back to dabbing at the cut with a clean corner of the towel.  “Sollux?  Are you okay?”  He’d gone still, his comm fallen to the floor.

“I’m… I’m alright,” Sollux said eventually, nodding slightly, staring at the ceiling.

“...okay,” Vriska stood and kicked the bottle of rubbing alcohol away, watching it spin across the stone floor idly.  Sollux swallowed dryly.

“Don't mind me, I’m just gonna lie on the floor…” he rasped.  “Bleeding thuckth.  What even is the point of having blood?”

Vriska sighed.  She’d seen trolls like this before.  They got all loopy from blood loss, passed out, and became food for Spidermom.  As much as she disliked Sollux, she wouldn’t want to feed him to her lusus.  “What did Equius say?”

“Right... thweaty guy…” Sollux slurred.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Vriska snapped.  “What did he say?”

Sollux thought about this for a while, chewing on his tongue.  “He'll be over in five,” he said.

“Great,” Vriska muttered, pacing away.

“Hath two finish up with Tavroth,” he added as an afterthought, waving a floppy hand, still addressing the ceiling.

“Fine.”  Vriska stared out at the landscape, turning shades of orange and red as the sun rose inexorably.  She snapped the curtain shut and turned to the troll bleeding out in front of her couch.  “What do we do to your scratch again after cleaning it?”

“Thtitch it,” Sollux mumbled, a faint grin stretching across his face.

“Even better,” Vriska huffed.

“Do you know how two thtitch things?  I’d rather not end… up with an infection… or anything.”  Sollux actually seemed half-conscious there.  Vriska couldn’t tell with his stupid pupilless eyes, but it looked like he was staring at her.

“Um, well…  Not really.”  Vriska rubbed the back of her neck.  “I didn't do anything to my eye after it got blown out.  It just kind of healed on its own…”

“Maybe Equiuth knowth how two do that two,” Sollux mused, closing his eyes.  

“Yeah, maybe,” Vriska mumbled.  She fidgeted with her robotic arm, trying to tuck frazzled wires back in between the overlapping plates of metal.  

 

Just then, the door burst open.  Vriska shrieked.  Orange light flooded in, sweeping a troll into the hive along with it.  

“Shut the fucking door, moron!” Vriska howled, wincing at the stinging sensation from the light. The door closed, leaving the trolls blinded in the sudden darkness.  Sollux looked down from the ceiling, blinking hard.

“Uh, hi, we’re here!”

“ _You!_ ” Vriska snarled at Tavros, startled.

“Yes, me,” Tavros seemed equally surprised.

“Why the fuck did he bring Nitram?” Sollux moaned, head lolling back again.

“Ugh!” Vriska spat, overcoming her surprise.  “Where's Equius?”

“He was right behind me…” Tavros said apologetically, turning to look at the door.  “I was at his hive… with him.”

“How is he not behind you?  He's more able-bodied than you,” Vriska growled.

Heavy footsteps thundered up to the door and it burst open again, discharging Equius into the foyer.  He was sweating and flushed blue and a little sunburned, carrying a heavy-looking toolbox.

“Thank god, there he ith,” Sollux sighed.

“Alright,” Equius panted, setting his toolbox down with a _clang_.  “What exactly is going on here?  Vriska, you have damaged your arm yet again?”  He sounded put out, but had his haughty sneer in place as usual when he turned to Sollux.  “And you, lowblood…  What is the matter with you?”

“I’m bleeding, what doeth it look like?” Sollux growled, mustering enough energy to stare Equius down and bare his sawblade-teeth.  “I think I told you… we got chathed by a mutant luthuth thing…"

“You did not tell me that,” Equius said, sounding affronted at being addressed in such a disrespectful manner.

“And it thcratched me… and her roboarm ith broken, which ith why you're… here,” Sollux continued in as snarky a tone as he could manage.  “Oh… fuck, I don't know anymore…”

Equius’s lip curled with distaste.  “Let me see ... Tavros, fetch me my wrenches and the blue wire stripper.”

“Right away, Equius!”  There was a faint metallic whine as Tavros kneeled down to dig through the toolbox.

“In the meantime .... lowblood …” Equius loomed over Sollux.  “...Tie this tourniquet around your leg.  While Tavros is retrieving my effects I shall stitch your wound.”  Equius threw a length of rubbery wire down on Sollux’s lap.

“Got it… _thankth_ ,” Sollux drew the word out into a pained hiss as Equius tightened the tourniquet.

Tavros stomped over to Equius, holding out the wrenches and wire strippers.  “Here you are!”

“Not at the moment, Tavros, I am busy, can’t you see…?” Equius waved Tavros away.  Vriska, leaning against the wall on the other side of the foyer, snorted.  Tavros shot her a look, then drew himself up.

“Oh, um, sorry…”  Tavros clanged a few steps closer to Vriska, looking down on her.  “So, Vriska, what happened to your arm?”

“It broke, dumbass, that's why it's just hanging here all useless,” Vriska said with that derisive half-laugh in her voice.  She flipped her hair haughtily, managing to look down her nose at Tavros, even though he had half a head on her.  “What happened to your legs?”

Tavros pulled a disgusted, angered grimace.

“What's that dumb face for?”

“You made me fall off a cliff,” Tavros frowned, “that’s what happened to my legs…”

 

They were interrupted by a half-gurgle from across the room.

“Hey, um, is Sollux okay? He seems sort of, not conscious, anymore…” Tavros observed worriedly.

The two trolls peered around Equius’s bulk and simultaneously winced.  “Wow, Jesus ... I actually feel bad for Captor… eesh.”

“Maybe he’s afraid of needles... one time when I fainted when I had to get stitches…  because I’m not exactly good with them…” Tavros suggested with a shrug.

“Equius!” Vriska said sharply.  Equius turned quickly.  “Is he still ... alive?”

“Yes, Vriska, the lowblood is still alive,” he said with a tinge of exasperation.  “Now, let me fix your arm.”

Equius steered Vriska over to a nearby chair and sat her down, tinkering with the wires and plates.  Vriska hissed occasionally as Equius had to reseat a wire or port in Vriska’s shoulder. Tavros hovered over Equius’s shoulder, keenly observing the repairs.

“Aren’t robotic limbs great?” he said brightly.  “They let you do so much stuff you couldn’t do before.”

“Yeah, except when they break,” Vriska grumbled, baring her teeth at Equius as he pulled on a nerve wire too hard.

“Well, yeah,” Tavros conceded, “but it’s better than not having them at all...”

“I guess you're sort of right, Toreadumbass,” Vriska said with as much friendly affection as she could muster.  

Tavros grinned.  “Thanks.”


	4. It Actually Turned Out Okay

Vriska grudgingly let Tavros stay the day, once Equius talked her down from sending him home in the full sun and persuaded her to let him sleep on a spare couch far away from Spidermom.  They mopped up most of Sollux’s blood and deposited him on the couch.

The three trolls woke up fairly early; the sun had just set.  Vriska managed to find enough (actually edible) food for the three of them and sent Tavros and Equius back home.  She was finishing eating their breakfasts when she heard a _thud_ and muffled cursing from the room above them.

“Hey!  Captor's awake!”  Vriska said to nobody in particular and raced up the stairs.

Sollux sat on the ground, rubbing his head.  It was obvious he fell off the couch upon waking.

“Hey Honey Boy!  Nice nap?”  Vriska sang.  She might or might not have been mocking him.  It was always hard to tell with her.

“Yeah,” Sollux grumbled.  “Real nithe.  What's going-- did I thtop bleeding yet?”

“Yeah.  You're all stitched up!  Seeeeeeee?”

Sollux pulled back the ragged edges of his pants, stiff with dried blood, to see a line of neat black stitches covering the cut.  “Yeah. Yippee. Can I go back two thleep, or ith that like againtht the medical ruleth?”

“You have to go back home first.  Equius already messaged Karkat before he left.  He's coming to pick you up, seeing as you guys live so close.”  Vriska helped Sollux to her feet and tossed her hair with her newly-repaired roboarm.

“Heh.  KK.  Yeah.  That'll be good.”  He yawned and stretched.  His horns sparked, causing his hair to stand up on end.

“Next time, just _please_ don't ask me to go hiking with you,” Vriska said earnestly.  

“Whatever you thay, AG.  You know it wasn’t tho terrible,” Sollux said with a cocky grin and a raised eyebrow.  Vriska gave him a hearty slap on the back with her robotic arm that left him gasping on the floor.

            “Stop thinking you’re smooth,” she snorted.

“And…” Sollux coughed and stood, “the voitheth are pretty quiet right now.”

“That's good, right?” Vriska asked, moving across the room to open the curtains and let the green-pink moonlight in.

“Yeah, I think?  I can hear my own thoughtth clearly for onthe.”  Sollux rubbed the back of his head.

“Oh, hey, that's Karkat!” Vriska pointed out.  Not more than a minute later, Karkat stomped through the doorway, leaving it wide open.

“Sollux?” Karkat said by means of greeting.  Sollux gave him a smarmy grin.

“Hey KK.  ‘Thup.”

“That sweaty asshole told me to come get you; you were hurt.  By a mutated lusus.  And maybe or maybe not Vriska.”  Karkat gave Vriska a distrustful sidelong glance.

Sollux snorted.  “Thomething like that, yeah. No, it wathn't AG for onthe.  Theems I’ve been thpared from her friendothide.”  He waggled his eyebrows at Vriska and she gave him a “fuck you very much” face in return.

“Wow, that’s actually surprising…” Karkat said slowly, looking from the yellowblood to the blueblood and back.  “Come on, let’s get you home.”

“Nithe two thee your nubby horns, KK,” Sollux ruffled Karkat’s hair; Karkat pushed Sollux’s hand away.

“Yeah, yeah, save it for the road.  We’ve got a while back.  We’re not walking, if you’re wondering.  I used all my hard-fucking-earned lawnringcare money and got a taxi.” Karkat took Sollux’s elbow and pulled him towards the still-open door.

“Whatever you thay, Karkleth,” Sollux gave a nasally laugh.

“Let’s go,” Karkat growled.

“Awethome.  I’m going two thleep tho fucking hard and then… Then I'm going two code a thing,” Sollux thought out loud.  He stopped short right next to Vriska, who was leaning against the wall near the door.  Though Karkat had 20 pounds on Sollux, he rooted himself to the spot with psionics and left Karkat tugging ineffectively at his elbow.  Finally, the short troll gave up.

“Say bye to your new friend, Captor, it’s going to be a while before I let you out of my sight and into the care of this incompetent nooksniffer,” Karkat growled exasperatedly.  Vriska pretended to be offended.

“Bye athhat,” Sollux said on command.  He let Karkat drag him another step before freezing.  “And AG?”

“Yeah?” Vriska straightened up.

“Thankth.  For not letting me die.”

“You're welcome.”

Karkat huffed impatiently.

“See you around, Honey Boy,” Vriska grinned.

“Thee you around, Thpiderfreak.”


End file.
